


Together.

by svevijah



Series: The Life and Times of Lila Barton [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, creation of a new team, lila barton and cassie lang are like internet friends or something, lila barton and harley keener kind of despise each other, lila barton voices an AI, lila rhodes is the motivational soul of the gang, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 02:37:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18240689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/svevijah/pseuds/svevijah
Summary: While Lila Rhodes’ speech definitely hit close to home to Harley and Cassie, Lila still wondered whether it was a good idea getting into that mess. Her whole life her father had worked hard to keep her away from that life, from anything SHIELD related – and at the same time he taught her archery, martial arts, and everything a hero would know in order to get in the field and fight for what’s good in this world.





	Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is the "second part" of my Lila Barton series. I have no idea how many parts there will be but idk I just like the idea of my girl getting some recognition and love, because she deserves it lol. This time the Avengers are mostly composed of women and I honestly life for this :'')  
> Hope you'll like, leave a comment if you'd like - it would make me super happy <3

As she walked inside the compound – a blue-ish light scanning her face and not finding any match – Lila’s gaze was fixed on the floor, a thick veil of melancholy covering her features despite her trying not to look too scared and miserable in front of her dad.

“Natasha said they were gathering here…” her father explained, hand gesturing the hallway. Lila gave him a small nod, following him through the silent place. Suddenly, her father stopped in front of a door, sighing deeply as he opened it. The room was familiar to Lila, and just as she noticed pictures on the wall, she turned to face her dad.

“Where’s Wanda?”

Fidgeting with his hands, Clint didn’t answer. Giving a court nod to her backpack and bow, he began stepping outside the room. “You can stay here for now, Wanda won’t mind.”

“That doesn’t answer my question though.”

“Lila, please.”

Clint’s plead came out as a tired whisper, and taken by surprise, Lila swallowed back a remark and put her things in a corner, too afraid to take any space in a room that wasn’t hers – a _house_ that wasn’t hers.

“I’ll be with the others, if you need anything you can find me in the hall, or you can ask FRIDAY and she’ll show you around.”

Lila’s response to her father’s attempt to create to some sort of normal stability was utter silence. With a sigh and the silent promise that he’d fix everything, left the door ajar and walked down the hallway. When she couldn’t hear her dad’s steps anymore, Lila relaxed a little, letting herself fall on the bed.

“FRIDAY?”

“Good morning miss Lila” a female voice greeted cheerfully “how can I help you?”

Lila’s brow lined into a frown, and her gaze began darting around the room in search of any loudspeaker or something similar. Seeing nothing, she shrugged lightly and continued speaking.

“Do you happen to know if there are any non-Avengers people around?”

“Of course I know that, miss Lila.” FRIDAY replied solemnly. “Is there somebody in particular you’re looking for?”

Lila pursed her lips tightly, picking her phone from her jacket pocket. During her trip to the compound she had sent several texts to Cassandra, but none of them had a response. Maybe something had happened to her as well, or maybe her dad had brought her there too and she didn’t know already.

“Is Cassandra Lang here too?”

FRIDAY stayed quiet for a couple minutes, before her cheerful tone came back, relieving some of Lila’s worry. “Mr. Lang just warned me about his arrival with miss Cassandra in the evening.”

“Okay, thank you.” Lila replied politely, although the idea of having to wait to be with the only person of her age she knows enough to let down her guard a little was quite a bummer.

“You might want to meet mister Harley, though?”

Pushing her body up in a sitting position, Lila raised a brow at the ceiling. The name doesn’t ring any bell, and in all fairness her curiosity is not even this much to make her get up and wander around in search of this mister Harley guy.

“Never heard of him.”

“He’s a dear friend of mister Stark.” She explains, tone never fading to be patient “You might find him in mister Stark’s workshop.”

Still not really intrigued by the information she gained, Lila sighed and got up from the bed. “Alright then, show me the way to the workshop, please.”

Walking the hallway guided by FRIDAY’s voice, Lila followed the staircase down the workshop, finding herself before a glass door. FRIDAY’s voice suddenly faded and the boy in the workshop quickly nodded to something Lila couldn’t hear and opened the door. As she faced him, Lila’s brow furrowed. He probably was around Cooper’s age, although he seemed definitely taller than her brother. His sandy blonde hair was combed into a mohawk and the ink and grease on his hands left intend he had been down there for a while.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” he replied dryly, going back to what he was doing.

“I’m Lila.”

“Yeah, I know.” a pause, and then Harley’s gaze moved on Lila. “I’m Harley, but I guess FRIDAY already told you.”

Nodding lightly, Lila’s gaze began darting on the papers spread on the desk separating the two of them. Some of them had sketches of space ships and others of suits similar to the Iron Man one but with some personal improvement and notes written on the side.

“You drew this?” she asked pointing the papers. Harley nodded.

“They’re awful.”

Head tilted on a side, Harley’s blue eyes were staring directly at Lila. “Are you a rocket scientist or something?”

Lila shook her head no. “I’m an artist though. Some of these are out of proportion.” She declared solemnly, circling with a random pen the parts she didn’t think were right, much to Harley’s annoyance. “I can make a quick sketch if you want.”

Before Harley could even answer, Lila was already drawing on a new paper, hand smoothly moving the pen on the white surface. “I honestly don’t know shit about how to put it together, but at least now it looks good.” She remarks handing him the paper.

“it doesn’t have to be pretty, it needs to take me into space and save Tony.”

At his statement, Lila stayed silent, wondering what was the relationship between them, or if he had lost other people. “Isn’t Tony here with the others?”

Harley shook his head, keeping on tightening bolts and melting pieces together. “I might need another mechanic.”

Before Lila could say anything, a tall girl entered the workshop. “And another mechanic you have.” She declared dramatically, taking a pair of goggles from the desk and putting it on her head.

“Lila, this is Lila.” Harley introduced gesturing between them. Both girls gave each other a weird look.

“Rhodes, I’m Lila Rhodes.” She explained, a wide smile revealing pearly teeth. Without second thought, she extended an arm, ready to shock the other Lila’s hand.

“Barton. Lila Barton.” She said shaking the hand back.

“Barton like Hawkeye Barton, cool.”

Lila shrugged a little. Everybody seemed to know her, yet she had no idea who these people were. A little bit unfair in her humble opinion.

“Are you going to join the initiative as well?” Lila Rhodes asked, and for a moment Lila’s brain stopped. She had little to none training, didn’t have any special attitude to science and the only thing she knew was that her family had vanished before her eyes and nobody would tell her what was going on.

“Not that I’m aware.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda secretive, adults don’t know about it.” She explained. “How’s your archery game?”

“It’s ok…?” a pause. “I mean, it’s not awful but there’s still room for improvement.”

“Guess we’ll work with what we have then.” She declared dryly. “Harley, she’ll need a suit as well.”

“I can’t think about her suit too!” Harley protested. “Do you have any idea how it’s difficult building an Iron Man suit?”

“Riri did it and she didn’t complain about it.”

“Yeah well, I have no idea where to find a recording voice for my AI, I don’t even know how to name her!”

“Name her Dora.” Lila suggested in the hope to bright the mood that the two mechanics were creating. Harley turned to face her, wrench held in mid air and a confused expression on his face. “Dora?”

“Yeah, ‘cause she finds things, you know. _Usually_.” A pause and she began fidgeting with her hands thinking about how she probably should have stayed silent. “I don’t know, my brother watches it and it made me think–”

“Get in front of the mic and record these lines.” Harley interrupted her, handing Lila a bunch of papers with several lines handwritten on them.

“Me?”

“Yeah.” He said shrugging. “I mean it’s not like you could help in any other way, _Dora_.”

Rolling her eyes, Lila sat on a stool, papers in one hand and recorder in the other, and for many hours the workshop was filled with silence, Lila’s polite tone of voice and occasional courses from Harley whenever he would accidentally hit his finger with a wrench.

Silence broke when a short figure burst in the workshop, throwing a backpack on the desk. “If Hank knows about this, he’ll totally kill me.” She declared solemnly. “Oh, hey _Lils_ , it’s so weird looking at you in real life and not from a screen!”

“You two know already?” Lila Rhodes asked, and Cassie nodded with a smile. “Perks of having your dad under house arrest I guess.”

Lila shrugged as a response and kept recording the lines trying to sound as formal as possible, although the idea that it was utterly stupid couldn’t stop wander her mind for the whole time. There was something about that sudden chaos that reminded her of her siblings, of random happy moments at the farmhouse with them, and her parents, and aunt Nat; quickly pushing back these thoughts, she recorded the last line and turned the recorder off.

“Here you go.” She said handing it to Harley. “If your armour becomes worldwide famous don’t forget to credit my voice acting abilities.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

Shaking her head in annoyance, Lila Rhodes opened a map on the desk, revealing some names circled in red. Cassie and Lila moved closer – the first curious, the second definitely wary. “What’s this?”

“We circled all the places that we know for sure went through this ashes thing.” She explained. “This is worldwide, while this is strictly USA, because we need to start from somewhere we know after all.”

Taking a red sharpie, Lila moved her hand in a shaky circle. “It happened in Iowa as well.”

Cassie nodded at her words while looking at the world map. “So, what’s the actual plan?” she asked waving her hand upon the laminated surface. “We play heroes while our relatives are too busy to look after us?”

Lila Rhodes sighed deeply, one hand scratching her check while lost in thought for a good answer, or at least a snarky remark that would have given her more time to think about something serious. “It’s risky, and totally up to you whether you want to deal with the aftermath of it or not…” a pause, and she swallows hard, teary eyes looking at all the teenagers in the workshop. “…there must be a reason why we’re here. And if we can help, then we should.”

While Lila Rhodes’ speech definitely hit close to home to Harley and Cassie, Lila still wondered whether it was a good idea getting into that mess. Her whole life her father had worked hard to keep her away from that life, from anything SHIELD related – and at the same time he taught her archery, martial arts, and everything a hero would know in order to get in the field and fight for what’s good in this world.

“Riri will be here soon, she’s trying to contact a guy, Miles Morales..? He was bitten like Peter.” Lila continued. “We tried to contact Princess Shuri in Wakanda but we haven’t been able to reach her, apparently neither their Royal Guards know where she is.”

“We could begin with working on finding her.” Cassie suggested. “The Avengers will leave sooner or later, until that moment we have time to think thoroughly about our next moves.”

“Next Avengers.” Harley muttered, scribbling something on a paper.

“What?”

“ _Next Avengers_.” Harley repeated with emphasis, a grin on his face as he kept on saying it. “Sounds good, it’s us.”

Among cheerful agreement and an atmosphere that reminded Lila of the scene where the _Order of the Phoenix_ was created, she took a step back, arms clutched to her chest and gaze fixed on the map. That was a big step, and she really wasn’t sure it was a good idea for her to get involved in it. Then again if her dad could jump in the action whenever he wanted, maybe she could have as well.

“You in, Dora?” Harley asked with a hint of sarcasm. Lila’s gaze moved over him, her features slightly relaxed and a small grin playing on her lips. “Ok.” She declared. “I’ll pick one of Nat’s old suits, she won’t notice.” She began, hand gesturing in the air to help her brainstorming. “I’ll need more arrows though.”

“Well, good thing we have an engineer in the team, then.” a new voice asserted, and an armoured figure went out from the shadow cast upon the workshop door. Under the artificial light, Riri Williams smiled at all the people in the workshop, her Iron Heart armour shining just as bright as she did. Behind her, Miles Morales was holding his breath before he could burst into the most high pitched scream ever.

 


End file.
